I think the current generation of late teens/early 20s has lost any understanding of respect and are too self-centred.

I’m sure I’ve hinted at this before; but this morning it was highlighted to me, and it got me thinking.

The case in point is that of my housemates.

When the mousemates moved into my house the deal was that they would cook and do the garden.  To date living at my house has effectively saved them $2,000; it has cost me money in increased electricity bills (they have the tv on all day, fail to turn off lights for days on end and are fond of running the airconditioner with the doors open), damage to property (cigarette burns in a couch, stains on another couch, damage to a water pump and jobs that have only been done by half and will require me to spend money to fix or complete the job).  To date they have not paid me any of the money they owe me for their fridge or washing machine (excluding the first payment shortly after purchasing the whitegoods) at the start of last year.  Additionally I have had to help them with moving stuff and collecting a drowned car from by a creek.  When the housemates decided to get a dog they asked about getting a specific dog that was small, I agreed to this but they did not end up getting that dog; instead they got Leylah, a border collie and as such a much larger dog.  I’m sure there are other things, but they obviously aren’t important enough to remember.

As I mentioned in a previous post my car window has also been left open, the first time resulted in oen housemate being banned from the car for a short period of time, the second occasion resulted in a more permanent ban.  These bans would have been avoided if said housemate has apologised for leaving the window open or had asked if any damage had been caused.  No damage was caused, but the lack of concern for my property is what annoys me.

Last night the issue was raised when the housemate who is banned from the car asked for a lift into town.  I told her I would not take her into town and that I was going to take my motorbike, I also reminded her that she was banned from the car.  Her response was “that’s just stupid”; I disagree, what is stupid is her lack of ability to think and her lack of respect and concern for other people and their property.

This morning when I got up this housemate was ready to go into town and asked for a lift again, once again I told said housemate that I was taking the bike, the ute costs a lot more to run and that there was a ban on the use for the car.  My housemate then tried offering to put $20 of fuel in the ute (it costs around $20 in fuel for the return trip, plus wear and tear on the car bringing the total cost of the trip to around $40), once again I reminded my housemate that they were banned from the car.  At this point my hosuemate started crying because “I can’t deal with spending another day in the house”.  A comment was made “well we’ll just have to move out then” as my housemate stormed off.  As if moving out is a threat to me; if they move out I’ll have to do the garden myself (it will most likely get done quicker without them anyway) and I will have to cook for myself; in return is will save several hundred dollars every quarter in power, I will have less stress about what they have done wrong or broken, I wont have to put up with a large dog running around the house and making a mess and I will have a house that once cleaned will stay clean for a long period of time.

If these housemates showed some respect, cleaned up after themselves, had some pride in the residence in which they live and stopped expecting everyone to do what they want, then their life would be a lot easier and people might be willing to help them.  If they do move out I am tempted to tell them the washing machine and fridge both stay as they have not been paid for; perhaps that will help teach them to pay their debts and to treat peoples property with respect.

Well this morning “the straw that broke the camel’s back” event happened.

Those I’ve chatted to online will no doubt have had to put up with me venting about my housemates who seem incapable of thinking and who fail to do anything overly useful.  Well I’ve given up on being nice, apparently it just doesn’t work on these people.

The event that has caused me to crack the shits was that one of them left my ute window open over night and as such I got a wet-ass on the way to work.  Thankfully we didn’t get any really heavy rain as I’m sure they would object to me demanding $300 to get the seat covers removed to allow the seat to dry properly.

Anyway, when I get home the law will be getting laid down (unless they happen to read this and realise they fucked up and do something about it).

Here’s a quick outline of what is going to be said: housemate who left the window down will be banned from the car, said housemate has been banned from the car for a couple of weeks in the past for this same offence, this is a permanent ban.  Additionally, both housemates will be told to keep the common areas of the house clean (common areas include the living room, kitchen, bathroom, laundry and outdoor entertaining area).  I will allow until Friday afternoon (upon my return home from work) for this to be completed or they will be given notice to vacate the premises.  Upon completion of the cleaning, the house will be kept in a reasonable state and any mess that is made will be cleaned in a reasonable time-frame (within a couple of hours) or notice to vacate will be issued.

Additionally, when the housemates moved in during November the deal was that they would stay until the end of February and they would have the garden completed in that time.  I am aware that the backyard could not be worked on as I have been trying to organise the installation of the waste-water system, but in the time they said they would complete the entire garden they have barely done any work on the front garden.  If I value their rent at $125 per week (they do not pay rent as they should be working on the garden), I have paid approximately $1750 to get a tea hedge planted, the lawn mown a couple of times and minimal work done on the front garden.  Due to the lack of work, I will be requiring them to complete the front garden within 2 weeks.

Housemates, if you read this, pull your finger out and do some work when I’m not at home.  I’m not your fucking father, and I don’t expect to have to treat you like children to keep my house in a reasonable state of cleanliness; additionally, I don’t expect to have to harrass you about doing a few hours work every week to cover your rent.  If you can’t keep the place clean, or if you have no intention of completing the work in the garden, I suggest you find yourself somewhere new to live and you go about it fairly quickly.

Until the rain came this weekend I’ve had a fairly productive weekend.

During the week Nathan attempted to convert his car into a submarine; unfortunately this attempt failed at the second creek crossing, the car stalled and filled with water.  This resulted in a good portion of the weekend being utilised to try and get his car functional again.

On Friday night we went to collect the car and had to remove the spark plugs to get the water out of the engine.  This went well until the battery died, so we had to borrow some jumper leads off the people in a nearby house.  Eventually we got the water out and started the car.  The 30km drive home was uneventful but the car was running rough because of the water in the fuel tank.  We put the car in the garage and Nathan started removing the interior.

On Saturday Ren and I went into town, looked through the Tender Centre (where once again I placed way too many tenders) and did some shopping.  Included in the shopping were things such as chassis stands, oil drip trays and an oil change kit for fixing Nathan’s car; we also got about 9 Sodastream flavours.

Saturday afternoon was spent doing a few bits to Nathan’s car and generally taking it easy.

Today (Sunday) we got off to a late start, but we’re removed a large amount of wire mesh from the garden, broken a heap more concrete so it is ready for removal and removed most of the grapevine and associated wires.

The plan is for Nathan to work on his car next weekend when my Dad is here; my Dad has a reasonable amount of mechanical knowledge, so things that Nathan and I don’t know about my Dad can help with.  I’ll try and finish off the jackhammering and removal of the concrete and Ren will potter around the garden or similar.  I’m also hoping to get some more work done on the ensuite during the week so it is ready for the electrician to come and do all the wiring.

Overall I think we’re relatively on track to have things completed by the time they need to be done.  The backyard should be ready for when the waste-water system is installed; the ensuite should be ready for the electrician and then will have more work done to be ready for us to run the waste-water pipes prior to the installation of the waste-water system; assuming finances allow for it I should be able to get the rainwater collection tanks in place and connected just after the new tank arrives and I should be able to finish off my walk-through robes before my Mum gets here mid-year so she can see what I’m doing with the place.

As of this morning I officially think that cars suck!

I wandered out of the house at 8:00am ready for my daily drive to work.  Before I’d reached the end of my street I realised I had a flat tyre so reversed back into the driveway and got to changing it over for the spare.

I wasn’t confident that the spare would be any good, but through some small miracle it had a minor amount of air in it and I was able to drive to Kyogle at about 60kph (in a 100kph zone).

Thankfully the tyre shop (Singh’s Tyres and Mechanical) wasn’t hugely busy, so they were able to deal with my car straight away.  I got a couple of Cooper 235/17R15 ATR tyres on the front, a generic baranded AT tyre on the spare and the existing front tyres were moved to the back of the ute.

Total time taken for the tyre replacement was around 30 minutes, total damage to my wallet was $652. OUCH!

So, although I think cars suck, I think my wallet hates them even more.

And to think, I still have to take the ute for a service next week and that could cost up to $800!

Well today has been a financially fucked day!

I contacted Neilen’s Conveyancing this morning to find out why I had received a rates notice from Kyogle Council.  The conveyancer said the rates had been paid to the council and that I shouldn’t have got a notice.  They also said I should contact the council for further information.  I contacted Kyogle Council and was told the conveyancer hadn’t taken into account that the old owners had a pensioner discount on their rates and that $125.01 was still outstanding.  When I called the conveyancer to tell them what had happened all they said was “sorry”.

Then, this afternoon I got a call from Lismore Toyota to say they had stuffed up when I got the timing belt changed on my ute and they had forgotten to invoice me for the new radiator that I got at the time.  When I took the ute in to get the timing belt I asked them to do a quick once over and make sure the car was ok.  Instead of spending the $600 they quoted for a timing belt replacement I was charged $900 due to the other work that had to be done so it came as quite a surprise that they had forgotten to add a $500 radiator to the invoice.

So in summary, it seems that companies are either incapable of perferming the task they are employed for, or they are incapable of billing for it correctly.

Do I have any legal recourse about either of these issues? I doubt it, they no doubt have some disclaimer or there isn’t legislation to protect the consumer from organisations that prove themselves to be capable of 98% of a job, but fail dismally at the last 2%.

At least the coffee shop I always go to is capable of making a take-away latte with 2 sugars and consistantly charges $3.30 for it (and gives me every 10th one free) and can even correctly calculate the change, if only other companies were capable of the same basic mathematics!

Well the Tarago is gone.  The buyer came and picked it up today.

That’s one car down and 1 left to sell, lets hope I can get rid of it soon!

The eBay auctions for my cars have finished.

The Fairlane didn’t sell (but I have a couple of people who are still interested), but the Tarago did.  the guy who bought the Tarago will come and collect it (and pay) on Tuesday.

Oooops, I almost forgot to post about listing my Ford Fairlane and my Toyota Tarago on eBay.

On Saturday I listed the Fairlane with a $1,000 start price and $1,500 Buy It Now; the Tarago was listed with a $300 start price and a $1,000 Buy It Now.

So far I have had heaps of enquiries and a few people asking to come and look at the cars.

Someone has placed a bid on the Tarago, but as they have 0 feedback I am unsure if they will come through.

Hopefully by early afternoon on Saturday I will have both cars sold!

I popped past the Tender Centre this morning to see what they had.  I ended up placing the following bids:

• RJays motorcycle jacket $20.00
• 3ft aquarium with black stand $30.00
• 2.5ft aquarium with accessories $15.00
• Small fridge (desktop size) $10.00

Hopefully I’ll get the aquariums and the bike jacket.  The fridge would be cool, but completly unnecessary.

I started installing my new car stereo this weekend.  I had to enlarge the hole in the dash so the waterproof case would fit.  I managed to get everything hooked up and only had to make one mid-install trip to Dick Smith to get some parts.

I’ve only got one speaker connected at the moment because I don’t know where to locate the others, but I’ll sort that out once I have a house and garage, then I can make some more parts.  At least for now I have music in the car.